The Wire with Castor

Wire Host Caeden speaks to Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni about household and tobacco tax cuts and the lowering of child poverty reduction targets

They also speak to Fiasol Miah from the Bangladesh skilled migrants association of New Zealand about the ongoing protests in Bangladesh.

And they speak to the University of Auckland’s Stephen Winter about the results of the Abuse in Care inquiry.

For City Counselling today Producer Sofia speaks to Councillor Julie Fairey about managing construction disruption in Auckland's CBD 

Tuesday Wire Host Castor speaks to executive director of the association of salaried medical specialists, Sarah Dalton, about staff shortages in Aotearoa’s health sector. 

And News and Editorial Director Joel speaks to CEO and co-founder of Wable, a social networking platform built for neurodiverse people, Holly Fowler, and Love on the Spectrum star and ambassador of Wable, Michael Theo, about the app’s release in Aotearoa.

The health system in Aotearoa has experienced issues of overcrowding and underfunding since before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While the current government campaigned last year on increasing funding to the health sector, most of this funding went to Pharmac and providing new cancer drugs.

Despite staff shortages in the health sector, the government has continually criticised what they claim is an overspend and poor budgeting. The new health commissioner, Lester Levy, went as far to describe the system as ‘bloated’, with similar criticisms from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in his descriptions of ‘fourteen layers of bureaucracy.’ 

Tuesday Wire host Castor spoke to the executive director of the association of salaried medical specialists, Sarah Dalton, about staffing issues in the health sector and how the government can address them.

The Child Poverty Action Group is calling for better monitoring of private rentals, as new research reveals the share of affordable rentals has decreased significantly over the last five years.

However the national trend saw a consistent share of private rental housing in Auckland and Christchurch compared to other regions, this in part is due to increased home projects in those regions.

The Child Poverty Action Group is advocating for the need to increase public housing builds in all regions, stating the government prioritises one and two bedroom housing over other rental housing. Sasha spoke to Greg Waite of the Child Poverty Action Group about the decrease of affordable rental shares.

Earlier this week, a number of leaders în the Green party’s Pasifika Greens group announced their resignation. The now former MPs, namely: Marie Laufiso, Alofa Aiono, and Vasemaca (vah-seh-mah-tha) Tavola released issued a joint letter saying that they felt culturally disempowered by the party’s treatment of former MP Darleen Tana, who they say was treated too harshly during while under investigation for allegations of migrant worker exploitation at her husband’s business.

The resigning MPs also said that they were not properly convened with or reached out to by Green Party leaders following the passing of late-MP Fa’anānā Efeso Collins, a prominent Pasifika member of the Greens and representative of the Pasifika community of Tamaki Makaurau.

For their weekly catch up, Oto spoke to Green party MP Ricardo Menendez-March about the resignation and statements made by the Pasifika Greens members. 

They also had a chat about the government’s changes to child poverty reduction targets and the Green Party's open call to the government on behalf of renters.